Absurdly serious play

Keralino Sandroviich is one of Japan’s leading contemporary dramatists. But this multitalented workaholic 44-year-old (also known as Kazumi Kobayashi) not only writes for, directs and runs the Tokyo-based Nylon 100° company he founded in 1985, he also makes films and plays in a punk band as well.

Typically, he stirs theatergoers every few months, so it is surprising that “Waga Yami (My Darkness)” will be his first original work with Nylon 100° in three years. In the interlude, Sandroviich has been busy directing and writing new plays for other companies, and reprising some of his old plays and directing other writers’ works with Nylon 100° to the tune of five or six productions a year. Some may regard this as a creative quest for a new direction for his own company, since Nylon 100° had become intimately identified with its hallmark nonsensical, absurdist and cynical comedies.

In contrast, Sandroviich has said that this new work is a “quite serious human drama” with less comedy than his previous plays. Focusing on a family, with different kinds of misfortunes piling more and more on each character, he likened it to the 1981 novel “The Hotel New Hampshire” by John Irving. “The characters face tragic situations, but the play doesn’t have a sad ending, and I think there’s a positive approach coming out of it,” he said.

“Waga Yami” runs Dec. 8-30 at the Honda Theater, a 3-min. walk from Shimokitazawa Station on the Odakyu and Keio-Inokashira lines. It then tours in Osaka, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Kitakyushu and Niigata till Jan. 31. For details, call Sillywalk Company at (03) 5458-9261 or visit www.sillywalk.com/nylon.